


Uzushiogakure 4th Great Nation

by Flux_Uchiha



Category: Naruto
Genre: And an OC - Freeform, Bisexual Namikaze Minato, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, How Do I Tag, Iwa's allied with Konoha, Kushina is loud, Minato's a dork, Namikaze Minato is a Dork, Red Lights Festival, Tadaaki is a smol bean, Tadaaki's an iwa genin, Uzushio Jewelery, Uzushio Traditions, Uzushio wants revenge, Why do i have to make up so many names, blame Kishimoto for the amount of oc's here, he's also too passive to be a mc, he's the one who destroyed Uzushio, so Kushina's making up for it, so they're stealing Kiri's stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25326736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flux_Uchiha/pseuds/Flux_Uchiha
Summary: Instead of joining the crusade against Uzushiogakure, Iwagakure went to Konohagakure with a peace treaty. Uzushio wanted revenge and it all spiraled from there.Kiri's in piecesHer people stolenUzushio replaced her as a great nation
Relationships: Namikaze Minato/Uzumaki Kushina
Comments: 20
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

Konoha celebrated the signing of the treaty with Iwa. Minato hid on a roof and pretended he wasn’t suffering from too sensitive ears. 

Someone found him anyway. 

“Hey, you alright, ‘tebane?” Someone asked, right in his ear, and far too loudly. Minato jumped, his notebook and pencil going flying. 

“Kushina, d-don’t scare h-him,” a boy said tugging on the too-loud girl’s arm. 

Minato quickly gathered his pencil and notebook, storing them in his pocket. “H-hello, who’re you?”

“I’m Kushina Uzumaki!” She shouted, and Minato flinched away. Not much, but enough for the boy to notice. 

He tugged on Kushina’s arm again. “W-why don’t y-you quiet d-d-down a bit? H-he doesn’t s-seem to like l-loud noises.” 

“Oh, sorry!” Kushina said, slightly quieter this time. 

“Thanks,” Minato said quietly, ducking his head. 

“M-my name’s T-Tadaaki, what’s yours?” the boy offered his hand, and Minato took it, using it to pull himself up. 

“Minato Namikaze.” Minato was proud of himself for getting through his name without stuttering. 

“Nice to meetcha!” Kushina said, grinning widely. “Are you a genin yet? I’m an Uzushio genin! I’m just here for a thingy.” 

“I-I’m a genin,” Minato confirmed. 

“Tadaaki’s an Iwa genin!” Kushina chirped, eyes closing and shoulders lifting in a beaming grin. 

Minato blinked a few times, nearly blinded by the reflection of the fireworks off Kushina’s brilliant grin. Then the Iwa bit registered to him. “R-really? They l-let you come on the t-trip?” 

Tadaaki ducked his head slightly. “M-my sensei is the t-top of the diplomatic c-corps. H-he brought me along h-hoping it’d get me a bit of experience.” 

“And get you to stop stuttering so much!” Kushina crowed, elbowing him playfully. 

“N-no!” Tadaaki protested. 

“Y-yes!” Kushina parroted right back. 

Minato coughed once, and their attention switched to him. “Is there a r-reason you interrupted me?” 

“We just wanted to know why you were up here instead of down in the square!” Kushina said, grinning. 

Minato blinked dubiously at his hiding spot. He’d selected it specifically so it wasn’t visible from the street. They had to have been on a roof as well to have seen him. “Cause it’s really loud down there?” 

Kushina snorted. “Eh, it’s nothing compared to manning a cannon!” 

The boys blinked at her. “Cannon?” 

“A cannon!” Kushina confirmed, grinning. She made the grabby hands. “Minato, gimmie the notebook!” 

Minato blinked, but quickly took out his notebook, found an emptyish page, and handed it to her. 

“Pencil too, I don’t carry one around,” Kushina insisted. Minato handed over his pencil too. 

“C-can you even d-draw?” Tadaaki asked doubtfully. 

“Of course I can! See, this is a cannon!” Kushina sketched a long tube thing with a largeish base and a stack of balls next to it. “Those are the cannonballs, you put them in the tube, then… KABOOM!” She threw her hands up in the  
air, almost dropping Minato’s notebook. “And the cannonball goes super far and crashes into whatever you aimed it at!” 

Minato squinted at the drawing. “I fail to s-see how that long tube goes kaboom.” 

“Well, it’s not the tube, that’s just what the outside looks like!” Kushina said, exasperated. “There’s a modified explosive tag on the inside! It only explodes in one direction, and that propels the cannonball!” 

“But d-doesn’t blow up the cannon itself,” Minato agreed. 

“Exactly!” Kushina chirped. “They need maintenance and stuff, and have to be replaced every five years or so, but they’re pretty sturdy otherwise!” 

“Minato! There you are!” Jiraiya scared the three genin out of their skins, landing on the roof next to them. “Ooo, is that a little Mina-chan getting a girl I see?” 

Minato immediately flushed redder than Kushina’s hair. “N-n-no!” 

Kushina cackled. “He called you little!” 

Minato puffed out his cheeks and looked away. “I just haven't hit my growth spurt yet! A-and you’re really tall!” 

Kushina just cackled again, looping an arm around the only slightly shorter than her Tadaaki. 

Jiraiya came over and ruffled Minato’s hair. “Well, kid, however you did it, I’m proud.” 

Minato sighed, slumping under the assault. “Whatever, Sensei.” 

“So, when’re you gonna leave?” Kushina wondered, kicking her legs in the air as she hung upside down on Minato’s couch. 

“Never,” Minato replied absently, sketching something. “I l-live here.” 

“Not you!” Kushina protested. “Tadaaki!” 

“I-I think the delegation l-leaves in t-two days.” 

“Aww, that’s not any time at all!” Kushina complained. “Can’t you like, ask to stay a bit longer!? Like, I dunno, to promote inter-village stability or somethin?” 

Tadaaki shrugged. “I-I’ll try I g-guess.” 

“Later,” Minato muttered, frantically erasing something. “Now w-we can j-just hang o-out for a bit. 

“Hey guys!” Kushina chirped, bouncing into the room. “Wanna take a trip to Uzushio with me?” 

Minato jumped, clutching his notebook to his chest. “Huh?” 

“Well, see, I’m going back to Uzushio for a visit cause I wanted to see my home, and we have a delegation going anyway to tell them about the attack, and the Hokage said I could go with them for a quick visit if I wanted, and I do want to, and cause he knows Jiraiya, he said I could bring you two if I wanted to!” 

“O-oh,” Tadaaki looked rather surprised at being asked. “S-sure, I-I think it c-could be cool to s-see Uzushio.” 

“Minato?” Kushina asked, grinning like a cheshire cat. 

“Sure,” Minato managed. “C-could be fun.” 

Kushina grinned. “We leave in two days! Imma tell Jiraiya I’m stealing you, bye!” With that, she disappeared in a whirl of her bright red hair. 

“I-I guess we’re going t-to Uzushio t-then,” Tadaaki said, apparently still reeling in shock from the sudden wild Kushina appearing. 

“I guess,” Minato agreed, loosening his clutch on his notebook. 

“We’re almost there!” Kushina shouted cheerfully, pointing to Uzushio. The almost reddish tint of the buildings only enhanced by the clouded sun. 

Minato looked up from his ever-present notebook. “Really?” 

“I-it looks really big,” Tadaaki noted, ducking his head when Kushina flailed her arms excitedly. 

“That’s cause it is!” Kushina insisted dramatically. “Uzushio is huge! ‘Specially compared to Konoha. Konoha’s tiny!” 

“Is that why you had all of the back alleyways and secret routes memorized in a week?” Minato wondered. “Because Uzushio is so much bigger?” 

“Also Uzumaki have better retention rates then you Konoha people,” Kushina said, grinning.

“I’m f-from Iwa,” Tadaaki pointed out weakly. 

“Then you Iwa people too,” Kushina decided, settling in her seat like a proud peacock. 

“Uzushio’s people, in general, have better retention rates than most of the world. The Uchiha have photographic memories with their Sharingan on, and occasionally with it off. They’re about the only people that can beat an  
Uzushio native in a memory game,” said the jounin accompanying them; a coworker of Jiraiya named Sakumo Hatake. 

“Oh hey look!” Kushina said, standing up again in the boat making it tilt dangerously. “We’re deploying the fleet!” 

“Why is Uzushio deploying its fleets?” Sakumo asked, leaning to the side to counter Kushina’s rapid shift in position. 

“Attacking somewhere?” Tadaaki suggested. 

“Probably Kiri,” Minato agreed. “It’s the only one reachable by ocean of the ones who were going to attack Uzushio. Suna and Kumo are both landlocked away from Uzushio, but Kiri’s fairly close by.” 

“Sounds about right!” Kushina chirped. A speculative gleam entered her eye. 

Sakumo eyed her cautiously, and resolved to keep a close eye on her. “Isn’t the Red Lights Festival soon?” 

Kushina beamed. “It is! Two days from now on July 1st, is the Red Lights Festival!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s more on the Red Lights Festival here, if anyone wants to see a oneshot or two about it, just lemme know. I may write them anyway. 

“The what?” Minato asked, tilting his head curiously. 

“The Red Lights Festival is a festival that the Uzumaki do. There are performances, and all of the branches assist in the festival. Outsiders and visitors are encouraged to participate as well,” Sakumo explained calmly. “When it reaches midnight, red lanterns are released into the sky and all electricity in the houses is turned off, the streets only illuminated by the red light of the lanterns. It’s a beautiful festival, and I am glad you got to see it. It is rare for Konoha shinobi to actually see a Red Lights Festival.” 

“Mostly cause the Hokage somehow got it in their heads that the Red Lights Festival was to be an only Uzushio thing,” Kushina said, shrugging. “That’s what Mito said anyway. They try and keep Konoha shinobi out of Uzushio around the festival.” 

“How do you know about it Sakumo-sensei?” Minato asked. 

“I had the absolute pleasure to attend one with my mother when I was young. I intend to allow any children I have to get the same pleasure. It’s a beautiful festival.” 

“I like the fan dances!” Kushina agreed. “They’re super cool!” 

“F-fan dances?” Tadaaki asked, looking rather nervous. 

“The Difenda no Shio branch has a division of weapons masters,” Sakumo explained. “They perform different dances each year based around different weapons. I suppose this year is the fan dances.” 

“The sensor division of the Iyashino Shio branch does a massive game of hide and seek!” Kushina said, grinning delightedly. “Always fun to try and fool them!” 

“Last one found often gets some sort of prize,” Sakumo agreed, smiling softly. “I hid with another Uzumaki the time I attended, we managed to fool all of the sensors by a seal that copied our chakra signatures and spread it around everywhere. They only found us because we wanted them too.” 

“What was the prize?” Minato asked curiously. 

Sakumo fished around on his neck, drawing out a necklace. The chain had obviously been replaced several times, but the pendant, a howling wolf, shone brightly. “I selected this necklace, it permits me to talk to wild wolves.” 

“I thought I sensed Uzushio jewelry on you!” Kushina chirped, leaning over to inspect the necklace. 

“Wh-what’s so different about U-Uzushio jewelry?” Tadaaki asked, keeping his distance rather pointedly. 

“It usually has seals on it allowing the person wearing it to do different things. It’s often a bit of a gamble though,” Sakumo said, tucking the necklace away again. “For example, a pair of fish earrings might let you talk to fish, or they could let you breathe underwater. Or perhaps temporarily turn you into a fish. It’s always an adventure figuring out what exactly the jewelry does.” 

“I have a pair of two-tailed kitsune earrings in my bag, they can just cast a fox fire illusion, I like them for pranks!” Kushina said, grinning and lunging for her bag. She fished out a jewelry box, pulling out the earrings inside, and sliding them on. Nine glowing balls of fire appeared around her, and she grinned. “See!”

Minato hesitantly reached out to touch one, quickly retracting his hand when it passed through the ball. “Fascinating.” 

“My Uzumaki friend selected a beautiful flute with red lanterns painted on it,” Sakumo continued, smiling. “Perhaps I’ll have to visit her during the trip. I haven’t been here in years.” 

“What’s her name?” Kushina asked, cocking her head like a particularly curious bird, earrings flashing as they caught the light. 

“Chinami, of the Difenda no Shio branch.” 

“Oh hey! She’s on my mom’s ship!” Kushina said, grinning. “I know her! I don’t think Mom’s ship has left yet, so you can probably still see her! Or was she the injured crewmate. I think she might have been the injured one. It wasn’t serious though, just a bit of tendon damage from a swordfish I think it was.” 

“Tendon damage? That takes most shinobi out for at least a week, even with medical treatment,” Minato volunteered. 

“I think she was also using some vacation time to be in town for the Red Lights Festival,” Kushina agreed. 

Sakumo hummed, gesturing as the dock approached. “Here we are. Uzushiogakure.” 

As soon as the boat docked, Kushina leaped onto the dock, grinning up at the massive buildings piercing the sky. 

Minato had to admit Uzushio was impressive, sparkling in the sun. Each building was covered in colorful ink, preservation and strength seals keeping each building together. 

“It’s b-beautiful,” Tadaaki marveled, looking almost overwhelmed by the sheer Uzushioness that was Uzushiogakure. 

“Yeah,” Kushina agreed proudly. 

“Yes, yes, it’s very beautiful,” Sakumo said, ushering them along. “But we need to get settled in.” 

Minato had a temporary ‘oh, herding us is like herding cats’ thought, before getting distracted by a book shop. “Oh, I think I have the first book in that series.” 

Kushina attempted to drag him off, only to get distracted by it as well. “Oh? I’ve read all of those, but look at this one!” 

Tadaaki grabbed both of their shirts, pulling them away from the display and back to Sakumo, only to get distracted by a shop with little wooden statuettes. 

Behind the three distractible teenagers, Sakumo sighed heavily. 

“They’re so tiny,” Tadaaki whispered, as if he was afraid to breathe on the carvings. 

“Come on,” Kushina laughed, dragging Tadaaki off towards a Uzuki store filled with gorgeous instruments. “Look Minato, this one has a dragon on it!” 

Indeed, the trumpet she pointed to had a dragon etched into the metal, its mouth the place the sound came out, the tail the mouthpiece. 

“Oh look!” Kushina chirped, dragging the two boys over to talk to an Uzumaki. “Hey cousin Katsu!” 

“Kushina? Are you back already?” The teen asked, accepting the bear hug from Kushina happily. “Oh, did you bring back a couple of dates?” 

“Katsuuuu,” Kushina whined. “We already got enough of that from Jiraiya.” 

“And you’ll get it again from everyone else,” Katsu replied, ruffling her hair. “So, an Iwa kid, huh?” 

Minato waved shyly, Tadaaki looking bashful at the identifying of his village so easily. He wasn’t wearing a headband after all. 

“I can tell from your chakra signature,” Katsu said a moment later, reaching out to ruffle Minato and Tadaaki’s hair. “Trying to cement village relations are we, Kushina?” 

“I am not!” Kushina said hotly, blushing as red as her hair. 

Katsu just laughed, ruffling her hair again. “Oh, hello Sakumo-san! Haven’t seen you around for a while.” 

“I’m escorting these three distractable children,” Sakumo said, an amused smirk on his face. 

Kushina looked like she was about to protest, then closed her mouth, apparently not thinking of anything to say. 

“Sounds like Kushina,” Katsu said, grinning. “So, Kushina, you gonna execute Uzushio tradition?” 

Kushina grinned with too many teeth. “You betcha!” 

“That’s my little cousin,” Katsu laughed, ruffling her hair. “Well, I have grocery shopping to do before Mom heads off to steal Kiri’s islands.” 

Minato blinked and tried to work that through his head while Kushina laughed her butt off at their faces. “Steal… Kiri’s islands?” 

“Yep,” Katsu agreed. “It’ll be easier than you think probably. We’ve really only tested the seals on a small scale though, so we’ll see whether the big ones work or not.” 

“It’s not going to hurt anyone though, is it?” Tadaaki asked, looking quite worried. 

“Nah, the seal is designed to move the island somewhat slowly. It’ll be a couple of weeks before any of the islands arrive, so you might even be gone before they arrive.”

Glances were thrown to Sakumo, who put his hands up. “I’ll see what I can do, there isn’t a specified amount of time we’re limited to while here.” 

Kushina cheered, grinning at Katsu. “Looks like we might just get to see them arrive!” 

“Yep, but I really have to leave.” With that, Katsu disappeared into the crowd of Uzushio’s people. 

“How are you two related?” Minato asked curiously. 

Kushina shrugged. “Oceans if I know. He’s in the Akai Arashi branch, so it’s probably pretty distantly.” 

“B-branch?” Tadaaki wondered, tilting his head. 

Sakumo started herding them along. “The Uzumaki clan is split into 5 branches, the Akai Arashi, the Hogo Uzu-”

“That’s my branch!” Kushina interrupted. 

“The Kieru Shio, the Iyashino Shio, and the Difenda no Shio,” Sakumo finished. 

“Oh, you mentioned the branches earlier,” Minato said. “So the Iyashino Shio are the sensors?” 

“Well, technically they’re the medical branch,” Kushina said. “The sensors are a division. Maybe if we get a bunch bigger with the new islands, they and the weapons masters can become their own branches. For now they’re too small to be anything but divisions.” 

“Something tells me that there will be a very large increase in size,” Sakumo sighed. “You Uzumaki aren’t known to practice restraint.” 

“Maybe we’ll even get to be a great nation!” Kushina chirped, skipping ahead. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They were supposed to do something this chapter. But noooooo, they just had to get distracted. Oh well, looks like you’re waiting another three weeks to get to the proper plot. That’s right, I have plot, be proud of me. Also, it was brought to my attention that there are actually 5 great nations. ...I'm not changing the title.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot! Hopefully. With any luck they won’t get distracted again. Also, here, we see why Tadaaki makes such a bad main character and needs Kushina and Minato. 

Once they got settled in the hotel room, Sakumo released them, heading off in the direction of his friend’s house. 

“Come on guys! We gotta meet a couple of my cousins and make sure they aren’t doing what we’re doing!” Kushina grabbed their shirt sleeves and started dragging them off. 

“What are we doing?” Minato asked, stumbling a few times before catching his stride. 

“Something! Can’t tell you here! An adult might hear!” 

From the snickers of adults they passed, the adults knew exactly what they were doing.

They ended up in a tree house on the far side of the island. Three Uzumaki were waiting for them, and Kushina greeted them cheerily. 

“Choryu! Hihana! Kawako!” 

“Hey Kushina,” Choryu said, smiling. “How are you?” 

“Good! We’re gonna do the tradition!” Kushina clambered into the treehouse, plopping down on one of the multitude of pillows strewn about. 

Minato was almost impressed by the amount of pillows and blankets strewn about, he was fairly confident he could back flip in and land on his back, and be just fine. Then Kushina’s words registered. “Wait what tradition?”

Tadaaki trailed after him, choosing to flop out across multiple pillows. 

“Choryu, Hihana, Kawako, these are Minato and Tadaaki! Minato’s from Konoha, and Tadaaki’s from Iwa!” 

Three waves from the Uzumaki. 

“H-hey,” Minato said, waving slightly. 

“Anyway! Im here to make sure something very important!” 

“We won’t take your mother’s ship,” Hihana said placatingly. “We’re boarding my dad’s!” 

“Wait w-wait, you’re doing w-what?” 

“Boarding ships!” The Uzumaki chorused. 

“It’s a tradition here in Uzushio,” Hihana explained. “New genin do it as soon as they graduate!” 

“And with all the ships leaving port, a lot of elder genin will be doing it again,” Choryu said. “Usually there’s only ever a couple ships leaving port, so they’re left for the new genin. With the attacks on Kiri, there are ships leaving left and right. I think all the jounin are just treating this as a vacation. Those that weren’t drafted into ships as soon as their genin left anyway.” 

“And we’re boarding a ship?” Minato checked. 

“Yep! My mom’s to be precise!” Kushina chirped. 

“W-why? Wouldn’t S-Sakumo-san be worried?” Tadaaki fretted. “W-we’re supposed to be h-here.” 

“Nah, the other jounin will assure him that you’re safe,” Kawako assured him. 

“He’ll survive,” Choryu agreed, grinning. 

“That’s r-reassuring,” Minato noted faintly. 

“Yep!” Kushina said cheerfully, looping an arm around his shoulders and leaning back against the pillows. “So? Gonna come?” 

Minato thought about it for approximately twenty seconds. “Sure.” Why not? It was an awesome chance to see what Uzushio’s fleets looked like. And the seals that held them together. 

Tadaaki flailed for a bit. “B-but I’m a-an I-Iwa g-genin! W-w-we were g-going t-to a-attack you!” 

“And?” Hihana asked blankly. 

Tadaaki flailed and stuttered, but nothing concrete came out. 

“He’ll come along!” Kushina declared, grinning. 

Tadaaki was somewhat reduced to incomprehensible flailing. 

Kushina reached over to pat his head. 

Minato looked at the other three genin. “So y-you three a-are also going to board a s-ship?” 

“Yep!” Hihana chirped. “We’re going to board the one my dad captains. Choryu’s mom is second mate, so that’s also a reason we’ve got a monopoly on the ship.” 

“No one but me dares board my mom’s ship,” Kushina said proudly. “So if Mom’s sent out, I go with her if I can! No competition!” 

“Your mom’s scary,” Kawako told Kushina. “Very scary. That’s why no one else would dare board your mom’s ship.” 

Tadaaki and Minato paled. 

“Don’t worry!” Kushina said, looping her arms around Minato and Tadaaki’s necks and dragging them in. “You’ll be fine! You’re with me after all!” 

“That’s w-what I-I’m worried about,” Tadaaki muttered under his breath. Kushina hit him on the head. 

Choryu snickered. “That aside, I think your mom’s leaving later this afternoon, so maybe you should get going. And get those two some proper sea clothing.” 

Minato looked at his jacket and pants combo and didn’t see anything wrong with them. Kushina’s kimono style top and pants were very similar, after all. “W-what’s wrong with o-ours?” 

“They aren’t Uzushio, it’ll get you caught in a moment,” Kawako explained quickly. “Also, they are  _ not _ going to hold up well enough.” 

“Mine are m-made of s-shinobi grade material,” Tadaaki protested. 

“Well sure,” Kushina said, tugging on his shirt. “But it isn’t Uzushio shinobi grade. And besides, it’s clearly from Iwa.” 

“T-that is where m-most of my clothes a-are from,” Tadaaki noted dryly. 

“Well duh,” Kushina said, rolling her eyes. “But you gotta look like an Uzushio kid! Can’t do that in Iwa clothing!”

“I have b-brown hair,” Tadaaki pointed out. “I-I don’t look l-like an Uzumaki a-any way.” 

Kushina smirked, and the boys backed away. She pulled out a pair of sealing tags, and started scribbling on them. “Not right now maybe! But we can fix that easily!” 

“Don’t worry,” Hihana said, a somewhat maniacal grin on her face. “It’ll be somewhat temporary, and I’m sure you look great with red hair.” 

Minato realized there was nothing he could do to get out of this, and gave up, flopping on the pillows bonelessly. Oh well, might as well be comfortable if he had to get a seal to change his hair color. 

If possible, Tadaaki looked even more distressed when he spotted Minato giving up. You’d think he’d learn from being around Kushina. But nooo.

Kushina pounced on him first, wrestling with him cheerfully. “It won’t even hurt! It’s just a basic seal! Everyone knows how to make these!” 

“Can confirm, all three of us can make them,” Choryu said. 

“N-n-not helping!” Tadaaki squawked, still wrestling with Kushina. 

“Calm down and let me stick this on you!” Kushina shouted, laughing. “It won’t do anything but turn your hair red!” 

“I-I like m-my hair thank you!” Tadaaki insisted. “I-I’ll k-keep my hair c-color please!” 

“Nope!” Kushina said, finally flipping him over, pinning him, and slapping the seal on the back of his neck. His hair turned bright bloody red immediately. She climbed off him, and advanced on Minato, who obligingly flipped over to show the back of his neck. There was no point in resisting the force of nature that was Kushina. 

After Kushina slapped the seal onto his neck, Minato eyed the red hair now framing his vision. Weird, and different, but not a bad kind of different. He’d always liked the Uzumaki red. 

Tadaaki was sulking, tugging on his red hair with no little annoyance. Minato laughed, shaking his head to see his newly red hair flying around. 

“See! You look better with red hair!” Kushina decided, pulling a mirror out of nowhere and showing them their new reflections. Minato tugged on his red hair, watching his reflection do the same. It looked different, but he thought he liked it. 

“I like it.” Minato decided, nodding firmly. 

“I d-don’t,” Tadaaki sulked. 

“Now you almost look just like Uzushio genin!” Kushina said proudly. “Let’s go get you clothes!” 

Minato stood, arms out, examining the clothes Kushina had picked out. She’d picked a green kimono style top similar to her own, except his was cut slightly differently, and was loose enough that he could wear his jacket underneath. He was grateful for that one, because he was rather attached to that jacket. There were trees embroidered on it, but if Minato looked closer, they were made up of delicate seals, and from what he could decipher, they were a lot of preservation and durability seals. The leggings were black, but had similar trees and leaves embroidered on them. He had to admit he rather liked the outfit, especially in contrast with his newly red hair.

Tadaaki came out of the dressing room still sulking, although Minato suspected he’d be sulking the rest of the time. Kushina had been nice and picked a brown top in a similar style to Minato’s that had rocks embroidered on it. 

“I am w-wearing more seals t-then I have e-ever seen in my l-life,” Tadaaki groused grumpily. 

Minato patted him on the shoulder. 

“You two done in there!?” Kushina shouted. “We gotta go!” 

“C-coming!” Minato called, pulling Tadaaki out of the alcove and straight into full view of Kushina. 

She clapped delightedly. “It fits! Wonderful! You two look good! Now come on! We gotta go!” 

Minato giggled, and followed his excited friend out of the store, towing a reluctant Tadaaki behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *bangs head on keyboard* I swear I meant to get to plot this chapter. But nooooo, they just had to get distracted. Again. Yeah this chapter got away from me.
> 
> Yes, I created a tradition for Uzushio genin to sneak onto a ship as a sort of test. In this case, Kushina is basically putting Minato and Tadaaki through that test. The adults, of course, did this test as genin themselves, and as such consider it cute. They pretend to be ignorant of the genin’s machinations, and pretend the genin aren’t on the ship. Also this was why I offered one shots last chapter, because plot gets in the way of me describing the festival here. Dang plot.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot! Finally! Tadaaki is salty to the max. *sighs* Kushina, stop pulling random things out of your pocket than not telling me what they are, please. 

The area around the ship was busy, people loading things aboard, checking the ship itself, which was covered in seals, and just talking, although that was mostly people on the ship itself. 

“We’ll sneak aboard when they load the fruit,” Kushina whispered. “In about… three minutes? It’s the best time to.” 

“Y-you would know,” Tadaaki noted saltily. 

“Yes I would!” Kushina said, nodding quickly. “Now c’mon! We gotta get aboard now!” 

Indeed, the fruit was being loaded up, so they moved an empty box to the area of the boxes that needed to be moved, and hid inside. Minato was pretty sure anyone near the box could hear Kushina and Tadaaki sniping at each other, but he couldn’t really do anything about it. He was still damp from Kushina pushing him into the ocean the last time he tried. At least his short hair dried quickly, and the clothes Kushina had shoved them into quickly were sealed against water. He would just have to deal with the salt in his hair later. Maybe he could brush it out or something. 

They stopped moving, and just like that, they were onboard. 

“Are you sure th-they won’t be m-mad that there’s an e-extra box?” Tadaaki hissed.

“Course not! They put us in the corner, which is the empty spot anyway. It’s the genin spot.” Kushina poked her head out of the lid. “Yep! In the corner as usual.” 

“Is this a n-normal thing?” Tadaaki asked, scandalized. 

“Yeah! There’s almost always genin on a ship. Weren’t you listening? We just gotta wait until we set sail, then we can hop out, collapse the box, and we’re all good!” She closed the lid to the box again, wriggling slightly in her corner of the box. “It’ll be a little while to wait, so…” she pulled out a seal, slapping it on the top of the box. It glowed, and the box lit up with light. Minato could see Tadaaki’s angry pout, and Kushina’s beaming grin as she rooted in her pockets. She pulled out a tag, slapping it in the middle of the three, then activating it. 

Minato blinked at the box that appeared from the seal. “What’s that?” 

Kushina shrugged. “No clue! Mom handed it to me before I left for Konoha, ‘tebane!” 

“It looks like a j-jewelry box,” Tadaaki noted, nudging it cautiously with a toe. 

Minato eyed it. He supposed it might? He had unfortunately never seen a jewelry box, so he really wouldn’t know. 

Kushina shrugged, running her fingers over the surface of the box. “Where’s the clasp then? How does it open?” 

Minato eyed the intricate carvings on the box. “Maybe it’s one of those trap boxes? You have to figure out how to open them to get what’s inside?” He laid his hand on the side of the box, pushing a bit of chakra into it. One seal lit up with a dull green glow. 

Kushina pushed chakra into it as well, three seals lighting up with orange, blue, and green respectively. 

“Maybe we have to light up all of the seals?” Minato wondered, moving his hand and pushing chakra in to light up an orange seal. 

Tadaaki poked the box cautiously, two seals, blue and orange lighting up under his touch. He wrinkled his nose and glared at the box like it had personally offended him. 

Minato patted himself down for a pen. “Maybe we should mark what is what color, where is my pen?” 

“I have a marker!” Kushina crowed, displaying an admittedly impressive array of markers. 

“Y-you have lots of markers,” Tadaaki pointed out. 

Kushina nodded excitedly. “I like markers, ‘tebane.” 

Minato focused back on the box. What were they even supposed to do? Get all of the seals to light up? He wasn’t even sure how many seals were on the box. Maybe they had to get them all the same color? 

Ultimately, they managed to get all of the seals orange, and the top opened up, showing a note. They’d succeeded at something. Even if it’d taken them like ten minutes. 

Minato snatched it up before Kushina could grab it. “Says that we have to line up the colors to unlock different parts of the box. Something about a prize if we unlock every layer.” 

“How many layers are there then?” Kushina wondered, staring at the box as if it was full of explosives. 

Minato checked the note again. “Doesn’t say.” 

Tadaaki glared at the box. “W-what e-even is t-the point of th-these things?” 

Minato shrugged. “They’re interesting? Useful when there’s nothing else to do, or your teammates are being stupid again which means your sensei has to scold them, then correct them, and you’re left with the day’s stuff done and nothing to do.” 

“That’s o-oddly specific,” Tadaaki noted. 

“Yeah,” Minato trailed off, glancing away somewhat embarrassedly. “They usually have a good pay off anyway. And you can try and solve it faster next time, or a different way, if it’s that kind of box. I have a lot of them.” 

“Like non Uzushio ones?” Kushina asked curiously. “Did you bring any?” 

Minato blushed, and sputtered. “N-no! I-I figured you’d w-want me paying a-attention to things! A-and I didn’t w-want to bring unnecessary things!” 

“I wanna see them when we go back to Konoha,” Kushina ordered, leveling her finger at him. 

Minato, still flustered, nodded quickly, burying his face in his arms soon after, legs drawn up to hide his face better. 

“Oh hey the orange went away,” Kushina remarked, poking the box to show the purple now in place of the orange. 

“That’s probably o-one of the layers,” Tadaaki guessed. “So there are p-probably at least three m-more layers. Fun.” 

Minato had recovered, shifting to sit on his knees. “Yep! Maybe even more.” 

Two hours later, the ship hadn’t moved yet, and they’d unlocked four layers. Blue, green, purple, and pink. Each contained a note with something vaguely encouraging on it. He said vaguely encouraging because most involved a threat of some sort. Mostly concerning if anyone besides Kushina was opening the box. Kushina had mostly just laughed at the threats, which included being thrown into the ocean for the barracudas to find, tossed over one of Uzushio’s cliffs, and being left for the foxes. 

“I-is the ship ever g-going to leave?” Tadaaki asked, sounding rather exasperated as two of the seals swapped colors. 

“Yeah, in a bit!” Kushina poked her head out of the container, probably checking something. “Yeah! They’re almost done loading, so we’ll set out soon!” 

“Took forever,” Tadaaki groused. 

“Ah don’t be such a sourpuss,” Kushina teased easily. “This is a fully stocked war ship! A good portion of this will probably actually be handed out at the islands! Kiri’s like one of the least wealthy nations, right? At least half of this plan is dependant on us being able to convince the residents that being with Uzushio’ll be better!” 

Honestly, Minato didn’t doubt it’d work. Uzumaki were very persuasive. Even without using brute force. 

“J-just d-don’t dye their h-hair and I’m s-sure they’ll be h-happy to join,” Tadaaki said sulkily. 

“Wow you are salty about that,” Kushina said, laughing. 

“You d-don’t say,” he muttered. 

“I got another layer,” Minato said, breaking into the argument. If it could be called an argument. He snatched the note. “It says we’re almost there. And if we aren’t Kushina we’ll be fed to the seals.”

“What kind of seals?” Kushina asked curiously, trying to read it upside down. 

“Probably means the animal seals,” Minato guessed. “They eat meat I think.” 

“Not human meat,” Kushina replied, wrinkling her nose. “They eat fish and penguins!” She sat back on her haunches, poking at the box, which was now just yellow and a pale brown. 

“What the h-heck is a penguin?” Tadaaki just sounded tired now, closing his eyes and leaning against the side of the box. 

Kushina scrunched up her face. “How can you not know what a penguin is! They’re super cute, and all black and white, but some have crazy eyebrows. I’ll ask mom if we’re gonna see any.” 

Tadaaki looked so confused. Minato, who’d only ever seen them in pictures in books, patted him sympathetically. “They do look very strange,” he said, wondering if they could find a book on penguins when they got back to Uzushio after the trip. Probably could. It would help with the explanation on what they were. 

“So what’s a seal?” Tadaaki asked, sounding like he regretted asking. 

“They’re long and sleek, and have sharp teeth,” Kushina informed him. “They’re nice though! They like dropping off fish to the kids who go swimming with them! The adults think it’s because they think we’re either sick or maybe their own guppies.” 

Tadaaki looked a bit light headed, and Minato patted his back. Seals were very scary to those who had never met one. He also had never met one. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Tadaaki, raised in Iwa where no one knows what a seal is. Or a penguin. He’ll learn though! And I thought the boat would shove off this chapter. It didn’t. Clearly.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally. Shoving off. For the record, I am sorry to poor Tadaaki. I don’t know if it’ll happen this chapter, I don’t know when it’ll happen. But I’m sorry for it. Kind of. Thank you to the sister of mine who came up with most of the jewelry in this chapter. 

They opened the final layer just as the ship jerked and started rocking slightly. 

“Oh hey we’re going! Finally!” Kushina cheered, then looked into the deeper layer. “Oh hey I think that’s a bunch of Uzushio jewelry!”

Minato picked up an intricate wave pin. “What would this even do?” 

Kushina eyed it. “Could be breathing underwater, or it might enhance any water jutsu you do. Hard to tell.” She pulled a pair of seal wrap around earrings. She brandished them at Tadaaki. “That’s a seal!” 

He eyed the roundish ball with eyes and a nose cautiously. “A-are you s-sure.”

“Pretty sure!” Kushina agreed. “Maybe once we reach the first island we can test some of these!” 

“Why not test them now?” Minato asked curiously. 

“It’s just kinda safer to test things like this in water,” Kushina said, shrugging. “Cause, lemme tell you, it is not fun to turn into a fish or seal and not be in the water. I’ve had cousins make that mistake. I’ve also helped cousins make that mistake.” 

Tadaaki gave her a weird cautious look. 

“It’s a hilarious prank,” Kushina said, clearly very eager to share. “You just swap out their jewelry that does one thing, like let them breath water, for one that does something else, like turn them into a fish! A bit annoying to find identical jewelry, but it’s hilarious when you can make it happen!” 

Tadaaki poked though the box cautiously. He did not find any more seal earrings and looked rather relieved. 

“One problem with being in the water,” Minato said hesitantly. “I can’t swim.” 

Kushina blinked at him for a long moment, then burst out laughing. “Really? You cannot swim?” 

“I can’t e-either,” Tadaaki offered cautiously, edging away from Kushina as much as the space permitted. 

Kushina made a weird sound like she was choking. “Really? You both seriously cannot swim.” 

“W-we didn’t g-grow up on a-an island,” Tadaaki pointed out. 

“But still! You maybe I can understand, you’re from  _ Iwa _ , but Minato? Konoha has streams and rivers and ponds and lakes and stuff.” Kushina’s laughter trailed off into giggles. “I’ll just have to teach you!” 

“No,” Tadaaki said immediately, trying and failing to get further away from Kushina. “I’m good just walking on water.” 

Minato used the distraction to pick out a thick silver bracelet. “What’s this one do?” 

“Well, it might have a shield in it,” Kushina said, immediately and easily switching topics. “Or it might help with channeling lightning chakra, hard to say. Also might do earth chakra!” 

Minato eyed it warily, and set it in front of him with the water pin. He picked up a butterfly charm bracelet. “And this one?” 

“Oh I think I saw that one in a stall,” Kushina mused, stealing it from him. “I think each charm does something different. One of em probably does a genjutsu of some sort.” 

Minato let her have it in favor of picking up a beautiful gold necklace with blue gemstones. “What’s this one do?” 

Kushina eyed it. “I’m not sure actually. We’ll have to wait to test it once we get to the first island or something.” 

“I’m happy to put it off as long as possible,” Tadaaki decided, nodding. 

“Understandable,” Minato said, nodding as well. He removed the second to last jewelry set, a pair of fox earrings. “What would these do? They aren’t like yours, yours had two tails.” 

“I mean, they might actually be one of those weird illusion ones, so that might actually be a different kind of jewelry that pretends it’s a pair of earrings,” Kushina tapped her lip. “Those happen sometimes. Kinda rare, so it’d be super cool if those were like that. They could also turn you into a fox. Or give you fox senses or something.” 

Minato added it to his pile. He wanted to know what it did. 

The final pair was a set of earrings Kushina pulled out. One was a wraparound earring with a lightning bolt as the base, and the other was a dangly earring with a lightning bolt hanging from a chain. “Oh I hope these ones shoot lighting!” Kushina said, beaming. 

Tadaaki inched closer to Minato. “What else might they do?” 

Kushina hummed as she thought about it. “Might boost lightning jutsu!” 

“I hope it’s that one then.” Tadaaki said, tugging nervously on his red hair. “I hate this color so much.” 

Minato patted his back. “I think it looks pretty cool on you!” 

“I look like an Uzumaki!” Tadaaki complained loudly. 

Kushina squawked in offense. “It’s a perfectly fine thing to look like an Uzumaki thank you very much! And if you hate it so much, I can change it to the Uzuki color.” 

Tadaaki eyed her warily. “What color is that.” 

“Really dark wine red,” Kushina said, already pulling out a tag to write down the seal on. 

Tadaaki eyed her for a moment longer then sighed. “Fine. But I want my hair color back after this mess.” 

“Of course!” Kushina agreed quickly, slapping the tag on the back of Tadaaki’s neck. “There you go!” 

Minato had to admit the darker wine red looked a lot better on Tadaaki then the blood red did. 

“Much better,” Tadaaki admitted reluctantly. 

“Let’s get out of the box!” Kushina shouted after a moment, scrambling to get up and shove all of the jewelry in her pockets. Minato moved much more carefully to seal away the jewelry in his pile into different pockets. Apparently, Uzushio pockets had storage seals in them for ease. It did make things much easier in some things, Minato was not afraid to admit that. 

Minato followed Kushina out of the box, and across the boxes that were in the hold. He assumed Tadaaki was following him from the consistent stream of ‘why am i doing this’ ‘this was a bad idea’ from the other boy. Kushina jumped down to the ground and opened the door, sneaking out into the main ship area, where Minato could see at least four adults already, two sitting next to big long grey things that were probably the canons, the other two chatting at the front of the ship.  **(Oh no, it’s canon! Scream and run, lol)**

“Oh hey kids!” A female voice chirped from above them. Minato and Tadaaki both jumped. Kushina just laughed. 

“Hey mom!” She shouted in reply. “Need a hand?” 

“Well, we could use a small child or two up in the crow’s nest! And maybe one to help out down stairs! So who’s most likely sea sick?” 

Kushina pointed to Tadaaki immediately. “I’ll take Minato up with me into the crow’s nest!” 

“What’s the crow’s nest?” Minato asked cautiously. 

Kushina pointed up to the giant pole sticking out of the middle of the ship with fabric attached to it. “That’s the mast! The crow’s nest is at the top, and we’ll go up there and keep watch for stuff!” 

Tadaaki looked very glad he wasn’t going up there. “Yeah, I’ll go down below and help down there!” 

“Good on ya! Hoshiko! Get over here and show the kid down stairs!” She looked down at them, smirking. “I’m Captain Mitoko, and that gremlin’s mother. Welcome aboard.” 

One of the adults with the Uzuki hair that looked very close to Tadaaki’s current color came over from her spot sitting next to one of the canons. “Ooh, another Uzuki I see?” 

“A-ah, I-I’m a-actually-” Kushina elbowed him to shut him up and beamed at the Uzuki. 

“Yep! He’s an Uzuki! Hoshiko, this is Tadaaki! Tadaaki, this is Hoshiko! She usually teaches genin teams, but I think her’s graduated to chuunin last year!” 

Hoshiko smiled. “Of course. Come this way Tadaaki, I’m sure we can find something for you to do.” 

Tadaaki reluctantly followed her down into the depths of the ship, glancing back at Kushina and Minato a few times. 

Minato turned back to Mitoko quickly. “Nice to meet you, captain!” He had no idea what he was supposed to do, so he just bowed. 

“Ah, don’t bother with that, guppy! We’re on a ship, not in the diplomatic room! Kushina, No tricks this time, alright? Don’t scare him too badly. Just get him up there, and show him what’s in the crow’s nest and what you do up there. Be back in time for dinner, alright?” 

Kushina nodded quickly. “Rodger that captain! Come on Minato! Let’s go!” 

Minato threw one more glance at the captain before following Kushina to the giant pole, er, mast. 

“The fabric is the sails,” Kushina explained. “Now we climb! Do it on all fours, it’s safer than walking cause we’ll be so high up, kay?”

Minato hoped he didn’t regret this too much. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh poor Minato. My poor boy.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The crow’s nest! Here we go. Tadaaki’ll be next chapter, so don’t worry about that. Minato found the whales himself, Kushina, stop infecting them with the need to throw this off course!

Minato definitely regretted this. He’d climbed trees as a kid, what Konoha native hadn’t, but none had been quite this high. He hadn’t thought he was afraid of heights, but he had to admit that maybe he was. Just a bit. When things were this high. 

Finally they reached the crow’s nest, Kushina flopping eagerly down into the pillows and blankets spread around the area. 

“All of the pillows and blankets up here are sealed to this area and thoroughly sealed against the elements!” Kushina chirped at his doubtful look around. “If we’re gonna be up here, might as well be comfortable.” 

Minato shrugged awkwardly, sitting down with his side against the edge of the crow’s nest. 

“Ooh, here’s the binoculars! Take a pair and we can look around!” 

Minato cautiously took the pair offered to him, and tried to copy Kushina’s position. He really didn’t see all that much. It looked all so weirdly far away. 

“Minato!” Kushina said, sounding very much like she was trying not to laugh. “You’re looking in the wrong side!”

“Ah,” Minato flushed in embarrassment. He turned them around. 

“They’re upside down,” Kushina sang, snickering. 

Minato just sighed and turned them over. 

“Now loop the thing hanging from it around your neck, and you’re good to go!” Kushina went back to staring out at the ocean. 

Minato looped whatever it was around his neck, and turned to look the other direction. 

In the distance he could see what he thought was Uzushio, the red smear on the horizon slowly disappearing.

“I think I can see Uzushio,” Minato said, privately quite amazed he could. 

“Ooh, you’re right! That is Uzushio!” Kushina leaned dangerously over the edge. “MOOOOM! WE CAN SEE UZUSHIO FROM HERE!” 

The captain glanced up at them, and from what Minato could see, she was grinning. **(Lucky bastard with 20/20 vision)** “WE’D BETTER FIX THAT THEN! HELP WITH THE SAILS WOULD YOU?” 

Kushina lit up. “Stay here!” She chirped to Minato before fearlessly jumping over the side of the crow’s nest. 

Minato blinked at where she’d been. “But what am I looking for? What am I supposed to do up here again?” He ultimately just decided to look out at the front of the ship. There were some clouds, the ocean, and were those whales? He’d never seen one in real life. They looked kind of small from here, although he assumed it was probably because of how far away they were.

One jumped out of the water, then fell back in, making a massive splash of water. Minato wondered if they’d see any of the whales when they got closer. 

He glanced down to find Kushina, and found her on the ship pulling on a rope. Minato followed the rope up to the sails. She pulled harder, and the sails curved, catching the wind more. Minato glanced down to find other Uzumaki pulling on ropes that led to the sails. 

A moment later, the sails had caught the wind more, and the breeze against Minato’s face increased. He crouched down in the crow’s nest. It was so high up and he really did not want to fall. 

Kushina jumped into the crow’s nest a moment later. “Alright! The sails have been trimmed, and we’re moving along at a good clip!” 

Minato understood none of that. “Sure.” He settled on. 

“So! See anything?” Kushina asked, picking up binoculars. 

“Some whales,” Minato offered. 

“Ooo,” Kushina said, turning her head this way and that looking for the whales. “Oh! I know those! Those are blue whales! Wonder if we have time to swim with them! They look like they’re going the same direction we are!” 

“What are we doing up here anyway?” Minato asked, staring at the whales for a while longer. They were probably massive. 

“Oh, y’know, look for land, icebergs, other ships, whales, dolphins, fish, big waves, storms, that kind of thing,” Kushina replied easily, waving her hand dismissively. 

Minato was almost too afraid to ask. 

“I’ll go ask mom if we can come up alongside the whales!” Kushina said cheerily, standing up and hopping over the side of the crow’s nest. Minato wondered if he needed to get used to that. 

He poked his head over the side, regretting it very quickly. Much too high. 

He decided to just wait for Kushina to come back up, and settled down in the crow’s nest to wait. At least it was comfortable up here. 

He almost fell asleep, just the sky, him, and the ocean. He could vaguely hear people shouting at each other in friendly tones down below, and the slight rocking of the ship was kind of relaxing. So he watched clouds go by as his eyelids threatened to close and not open again. 

It was abruptly broken when Kushina crashed back into the crow’s nest, and Minato mourned its loss. 

“Minato! Mom says we can totally swim with the whales!” Kushina pulled on his arm. “Come on come on! We’re coming up on them now!” 

Minato reluctantly went with her arm pulling, carefully climbing out of the crow’s nest and using chakra to stick himself securely to the mast as he climbed down. 

“Don’t worry,” Captain Mikoto said, smiling at him. “I’ll distract Kushina after this and you can go up and nap in the crow’s nest.” She winked at him. “A nice place to fall asleep, no?” 

Minato turned red and attempted to stutter out something. He didn’t get very far before Mitoko laughed. 

“No worries Guppy, you aren’t the only one to use it as a napping place. Why do you think it’s loaded up with pillows and blankets! Just make sure to not be up there during a storm. That’s pretty dangerous.” 

Minato nodded quickly. Just like how you didn’t climb trees during storms. Made sense. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll show you to the actual genin quarters later today.” She smiled. “For now, go follow my daughter. She’ll show you how to swim with the whales.” 

“But I can’t swim,” Minato protested. 

Mitoko pulled out a piece of paper, scribbled a seal on it, then stuck it on his chest. “There you go. Life vest seal!” 

Minato stared at the seal. He decided he didn’t want to know. He’d have to trust the sealing prowess of the Uzumaki captain. 

Kushina pulled on his shirt. “Come on! The whales are right there!” 

“Take an adult with you,” Mitoko called easily, laughing again. 

An Uzumaki with heterochromia greeted them, looking amused. “Swimming with the whales?”

“You betcha!” Kushina chirped, pulling Minato over to the edge of the boat. Minato stared at the creatures swimming alongside the boat in amazement. They were huge! Logically he’d known they were big, but this was ridiculous. They were massive! 

A push on his back sent him toppling over board. Minato was not embarressed to admit he screamed loudly. 

He crashed into the water, opening his eyes after a moment, finding the nose of a whale right infront of his face. He screamed again in shock, and waved his arms and legs in a feeble attempt at swimming. 

He was pulled sharply upward to bob on the surface next to the adult shinobi. “You good kid?” 

Minato didn’t think he liked this very much, but nodded anyway. 

“There’s a whale coming, grab onto its dorsal fin, and it’ll go with you.” 

Minato spotted the fin in question, and stretched his hand out to grab it. It caught on his arm instead, so he wrapped both around it. The shinobi also grabbed the fin. 

“Kushina’s on one of the ones ahead of us,” the shinobi said, pointing her out. “I’m Fukuro.” 

“M-Minato,” Minato managed, shivering slightly. The ocean was cold. 

“We’ll get you hot cocoa later. For now, enjoy the ride.” 

Minato squeaked embaressingly as the whale dove with them still holding on, only to leap out of the water a moment later, then coming down with a big splash. 

Minato didn’t like the taste of ocean water, it tasted horrid. He hoped Tadaaki was having a better time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You’ll see what Tadaaki was doing next chapter. It’s November next month, which means Nanowrimo, which means I won’t be posting! Sorry. See you in like a month and a half!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tadaaki! My child! Was talking with sister(who’s also in band) about stereotypes of different instruments. Tadaaki’s a clarinet, Kushina is absolutely a trumpet, and Minato’s a flute. Fight me on it. 

Tadaaki followed the Uzuki, Hoshiko, down into the depths of the ship. Honestly he wasn’t sure whether he should feel like he was walking down to his death, or lucky to get away from whatever Kushina would be doing. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. 

“So, do you play an instrument?” Hoshiko asked casually. 

Tadaaki froze for a moment. Drat, was he going to be found out? He didn’t play an instrument, he’d never had the chance to. “No? I wouldn’t mind learning one?” 

If Hoshiko noticed it was more of a question than a statement she didn’t say anything. “Ouch, we’ll have to fix that then! Any instruments you’re interested in?” 

“A-aren’t I supposed t-to be h-helping?” Tadaaki asked, trying to dodge the question. He could name maybe three instruments, none of which he was at all interested in learning. 

“Eeh, you’re a kid, there isn’t much to do down here anyway. It’s mostly just a thing to make sure seasick prone kids aren’t up on deck where it’ll make the sea sickness worse.” Hoshiko shrugged. “Anyway, we got a full room of instruments, mostly because there’s a lot of Uzuki on this ship, and broken instruments are a serious concern. We can look around in there and see if anything catches your interest!” 

Tadaaki followed the woman nervously, entirely unsure what they wanted of him. Why was this happening? 

They stopped at a door, which Hoshiko promptly opened, showing a room with dozens of metal and some wooden things covering the walls. 

“As durable as Uzushio instruments are,” Hoshiko said, tapping a particularly large one with a hollow noise coming from it. “They still break like any other instrument. They’re just more durable to the elements and stuff. Usually, things like flute and clarinets and strings get really annoyed if the weather changes. Instruments are very particular like that.” 

Tadaaki wondered why she was talking about the instruments like they were people. 

“They’ll go flat, sharp, refuse to produce sound at all…” she trailed off, shaking her head. “Basically unusable! So we made seals to protect them from that. But they can still get broken!” 

Tadaaki wondered briefly why she kept repeating that. He got it already, they could get broken. 

“So, see anything you like?” 

Tadaaki scanned the room and wondered if this entire trip had even been worth it. Currently he was less sure. He noticed a long thin brown instrument with what looked like mountains carved into it. Well, if they were going to make him pick something, might as well be earth themed, right? 

He pointed at the instrument in question, and Hoshiko beamed. “I thought you’d be a clarinet!” 

That was what the instrument was called, alright. He’d have to remember that. He paused. “You what?” 

“Well, there are kind of some stereotypes associated with certain instruments, and usually they’re right, hence the stereotypes. You seemed like a clarinet kind of person, and I was right!” 

Tadaaki didn’t follow, so he just shrugged. 

“Right, so this is a pretty good clarinet, so you’ll have to be at least kind of careful. I can play several instruments, and clarinet is one of them, although I’m more of a flute kind of girl.” Hoshiko grabbed another instrument that looked like the one Tadaaki had. “Here! I’ll show you the basics!” 

An hour later, and Tadaaki knew where to put his fingers, how to take care of the instrument, and a basic little sea shanty. There was about three notes, maybe four, in the entire song. Tadaaki didn’t feel like a complete failure, which was good. 

“So, have fun!?” Hoshiko asked cheerily as they cleaned out the instruments. 

Tadaaki nodded. He had. It was fairly enjoyable. 

“Alright! Just put it in this case, and I can show you the genin quarters for you to put it down. I assume you don’t want to be carrying it around the entire time you’re here!” 

Tadaaki blinked at her in shock. “S-shouldn’t i-it stay h-here?” 

Hoshiko shrugged. “Instruments are meant to be used! If you promise to take care of it and use it daily, I don’t see why you can’t take it!” 

Tadaaki blinked down at the clarinet still in his hands. “But w-why?” 

Hoshiko giggled. “I just said why! Instruments are meant to be used! It won’t get used laying around here! And we have plenty of other clarinets! Not just the ones on display in this room. A lot of these will actually be used for the festival coming up in a couple days!” 

Tadaaki blinked at her. “Festival?” 

“Yep! The Red Lights Festival,” Hoshiko confirmed. “We’ll have our own celebration while at sea because we won’t be in port for the real thing.”

He must’ve looked downcast because she patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry! There’s always next year!” 

Tadaaki didn’t say that he probably wouldn’t be here next year. “Right, yeah. Always next year.” 

“Come on, lets go show you to the genin quarters,” she opened the door, and Tadaaki walked out, standing aside to let her lead him to where their quarters were. “They aren’t much, especially not compared to the Captain’s set of rooms, but hey, they’re better then the genin box!”

Tadaaki assumed that was the box they’d come in inside. Most things were probably better then that box honestly. It was a box. 

Hoshiko opened the door to the genin quarters, and Tadaaki’s brain stuttered to a halt. If this was ‘not much’ what did the captain’s quarters look like? There were three doors leading off of the center room, and Tadaaki assumed each one was for a genin. The main room had a couch, a hammock in the corner, and pillows strewn everywhere around a kotatsu in the middle of the room. 

“Pick a room, feel free to nest with the pillows as wanted,” Hoshiko said, gesturing to the rooms and pillows. “I’ll bring your teammates down here once they’re done.” 

Tadaaki wondered what she meant by nest with the pillows, but entered the room anyway. 

“Have fun!” She chirped, closing the door behind him. Tadaaki blinked at it. Was he supposed to sit in here and wait or something? That sounded kind of boring. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smol child. Gotta love him. The festival chapters start tomorrow! It’ll be different then what would have been if they didn’t sneak onto the ship, but it’ll hopefully be enough for you to get a sense of what is happening on the mainland. Well, maybe not exactly what’s happening, but at least a couple things! There’s a poll up, and here's the link! https://forms.gle/gW5rNx9m8eajSHHU7 either copy paste into browser, or check out my discord server with the code pnQAF39!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Festival! Of course, what’s on the mainland is far more expansive, with more stuff for kids and all that. I’m planning a set of oneshots that basically follow Hihana and Choryu as they grow up and see the festival as they grow up. As younger children, older children, teens, adults, and finally as adults with kids. I’ll tell you guys when I put it out. If you want any other perspectives, like from people from other branches, just ask, I’ll probably agree! 

If Minato had been wondering about the amount of pillows and blankets in the main room before, he wasn’t any more. Kushina had, for some reason, constructed a massive nest that easily fit all three of them. Unfortunately, it was extremely comfortable, and being in it usually led to sleeping. 

Kushina thought it was awesome, Tadaaki and Minato, who were perpetually stressed by nature, thought it less so and avoided it whenever possible. 

Minato honestly wasn’t sure what Tadaaki was doing every time he was dragged out by Hoshiko, although Tadaaki seemed happy with it, so he left it alone. 

He spent a lot of time in the crow’s nest, whether quietly napping where Kushina couldn’t find him (she could, she just refused to bother him while he was sleeping), or watching out for things. 

“Hey Minato,” Mitoko said, approaching him. She offered him a large ball of what looked like string and lights. “Can you untangle this? There are four strings, attach the middle to the top of the pole in the crow’s nest and throw the untangled strings over the side!” 

Minato took the ball dubiously, but walked up to the crow’s nest to detangle it. With so much practice, he was getting pretty good at just walking up the mast to the crow’s nest. It wasn’t quite so scary after the first five times. He settled against the pole, keeping an eye on the sea ahead of them while he untangled the strings. 

“Well here’s one end,” he muttered, pulling up one end of one string. “Just gotta find the others.” 

He started untangling it, using the one end he’d found to slowly untangle that one section. 

He found another end halfway through the first, and set it aside to do after he figured out where this first one connected to the middle thing. 

The first one was tossed over the side to get it out of the way once it was finished, and Minato focused on the second end he’d found. 

It took a good few hours, but he managed to untangle it all, each end going over a different side, and finally, the middle of the thing, a weird thing that plugged into three slots on the top of the middle pole. Minato was not about to question it, especially when all four strings lit up immediately, all shining red. He supposed it had to be called the ‘Red Light Festival’ for a reason. It probably wasn’t because the lights hung during the festival were yellow or orange. 

He climbed back out of the crow’s nest, figuring he might as well see if anything else was needed of him. He spotted Uzumaki running around the sails, horizontally and vertically, using the long string of lights Minato had untangled to decorate the sails. 

He could see lanterns hung on any sort of corner, be it on the very end of each sail, or the ends of the ship, a large one on each side. 

Kushina sighed cheerily, startling him as she draped an arm over his shoulders. “It’s so pretty! I love the decorations for the Red Lights Festival! It’s always super pretty!” 

Minato assumed it was probably prettier when at night and the lights were more visible, as opposed to late morning, when the sun was high in the sky. 

“The lanterns will get lit once the sun goes down, and it’ll look even cooler!” Kushina added, grinning. “Hey where’s Tadaaki?” 

Minato shrugged. He wasn’t Tadaaki’s parent, or his jounin-sensei, he didn’t know where he was at all times of the day, especially given the fact he’s spent the last four hours untangling lights. Although now that he thought about it, it was about the time Tadaaki usually disappeared, so he was probably doing whatever he did when he wandered off. 

“You’re no help,” Kushina complained. 

Minato just shrugged again, unapologetic. “Is there anything else that needs to be done?” 

Kushina shrugged. “I don’t think so? The lights are up, the lanterns are up, really all we need is the festival itself to start, and that won’t happen until sundown. Other people are setting up the band area already, so that’ll be ready soon, the stage will really just be that slightly raised area in the front of the ship, so I think that’s everything.” 

“The band area?” 

“‘Course guppy,” Mitoko clapped her hand down on Minato’s shoulder and he jumped. “We aren’t going to have the band just down here with us. That’d mess stuff up.” 

“Like what?” Minato asked, confused. 

“How well the sound reaches the entire boat for one,” Mitoko said, laughing. “But it can also mess with the instruments. Most are chakra sensitive, and when not channeling their user’s chakra, can be prone to reacting weirdly to other people’s chakra. So when not in battle we try and keep them away from large groups of people.” 

“Makes sense I guess,” Minato mused. He didn’t know anything about Uzushio instruments, hadn’t ever used one, so he wouldn’t know. He also couldn’t play an instrument. 

“Have you ever played an instrument before, Minato?” Mitoko asked. “Most Uzushio children try at least one. It helps with air supply and lung capacity, so even if they don’t stick with it, it helps.” 

Minato shook his head. He hoped that wasn’t a problem. 

“Well, no time like the present, now we’re just waiting for sunset, so we might as well.” Mitoko chuckled, linking her arm with her daughter’s. “Kushina is a trumpet, although she hasn’t played in years.” 

“It was fun, but I got other things to do,” Kushina said solemnly. “Like the fuzzball.” 

“Maybe if you play trumpet you’ll annoy him into silence!” one of the Uzumaki hanging by their legs from one of the sails. 

“Kamiko, get down from there,” Mitoko scolded. “You’ll fall.” 

“I will not,” the shinobi protested, swaying slightly, blue and silver bells in their hair clicking and chiming. 

Minato snickered as Mitoko gave the shinobi a very unimpressed stare. “What was the last four times you fell then?” 

“An accident?” Kamiko tried. 

Another look and Kamiko huffed, swinging up to actually sit on the sail. “Fine fine, I’m getting down.” 

Mitoko sighed, shaking her head. “Right. Kushina, why don’t you see if Minato feels like picking an instrument.” 

Kushina nodded, and detached her arm from her mother’s, linking it with Minato’s instead and dragging him along. 

“I bet you’re a flute,” Kushina declared, dragging him down into the bottom of the ship. “You seem like a flute.”

Minato had no clue what she was talking about, so he just nodded along. 

“Tadaaki seems like a clarinet, we’ll have to ask him too!” Kushina bounced a bit as she walked, or maybe it was skipping, Minato wasn’t sure of the difference anymore. 

Kushina opened, or rather, kicked in the door, and those inside, an Uzuki, Hoshiko maybe? Minato didn't remember, and a very surprised Tadaaki jumped. 

“Kushina, Minato, what are you two doing in here?” Minato was pretty sure the lady’s name was Hoshiko. 

“We’re letting Minato pick out an instrument! Mom suggested he see if he thought anything looked interesting!” Kushina dragged Minato further into the room, and he waved sheepishly. “So is this where you keep going?” Kushina asked Tadaaki, releasing Minato to bounce over to Tadaaki. “I knew you were a clarinet!” 

Hoshiko chuckled. “You’re a trumpet, right Kushina?” 

Kushina nodded, beaming. 

Minato didn’t get what it was with calling people instruments. “Why do you keep saying I’m a flute?” 

“Well, there’s a certain level of stereotypes around a lot of instruments,” Hoshiko explained easily. “Trumpets are brash and loud, flute females are generally the gossipy type, males are generally quieter and sometimes gay.” 

“Minato’s just disaster!” Kushina chirped. “Bi or pan, I haven’t decided yet.” 

Minato was very lost. “Am I what?” 

“I can’t decide whether you just like girls and boys, or all people,” Kushina explained. “But you’re definitely disaster.” 

“She says like she isn’t a disaster herself,” Hoshiko noted mildly. 

“That just means I can recognize a fellow disaster better,” Kushina replied, sticking her nose in the air. 

Minato decided to ignore the conversation and pretend it wasn’t confusing him beyond belief. He scanned the instruments on the walls. All were intricately decorated, each with a different theme. He narrowed in on one of the instruments, a beautiful long one that looked like it was made of metal with engravings of whirlpools and wind currents. 

He picked it up, inspecting it and all the holes with the coverings. Keys? Wasn’t that what they were called? He was pretty sure he’d heard that somewhere. 

“I knew it,” Kushina declared. “That’s a flute!” 

Minato stared at it, wondering if he should put it back and pick a different one. But this one was really pretty. ...He’d live with Kushina declaring she was right.

“I don’t think anyone uses that right now,” Hoshiko mused. “I personally am water natured with lightning, not wind, so my flute is engraved differently. I’m also one of two flute users on the ship, the other preferring amplification and healer type songs.” 

Minato didn’t quite understand what the chakra natures had to do with it, so he just nodded. “I’m wind natured. Would like to learn water release though.” 

“And we’ll help you do that,” Hoshiko assured him. “Would you like to learn some of that instrument?” 

Minato nodded. He was curious, sue him. He wanted to learn. 

Kushina just cackled in the background. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, so just realized some people might be mildly confused if they’ve read both this and Silence of a Shinobi. So, here goes. Semari is still Kushina’s mother, as stated in Silence of a Shinobi, but Mitoko is also Kushina’s mother. Congrats, you now know both are very gay for each other and it’s adorable. It’ll come up in Silence of a Shinobi, albeit much later. Semari captains a different ship, so she will be appearing later. In Lilo and Stitch, for those curious, Mitoko died in the original Uzushio attack. What’re you saying, of course I didn’t only now think of this when I just realized that Semari’s supposed to be Kushina’s mom.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all have had a wonderful January! We move onto the Festival itself! There will be more of that chakra nature thing explained later, don’t you worry! There’s another chapter of this, because why would we ever stick to my outline. 

“It’s sunset! FINALLY!” Kushina cheered, kicking in the door to where Minato was attempting to practice the fingerings he’d been shown. “Come on come on come on! It’s time for the festival!” 

Minato blinked dumbly at her for a long moment, then visibly shook himself out of it and started putting away the flute. 

“Come on come on! Hurry up!” She insisted, pulling on his shirt sleeve. If he didn’t hurry up they’d be late! And they couldn’t have that! 

“I’m working on it!” Minato squawked, closing the flute case. The flute put away properly, Kushina dragged him out to Tadaaki, then grabbed his sleeve too and dragged them both up to the deck. 

The sky was streaked with red and orange and pink, the sun rapidly disappearing below the horizon. Little red lights lined the sails and mast, plus the lanterns hung on each corner. The whole ship was cast in red, and Kushina loved it. She always loved this time of year, when everything was cast in the bloody red that marked them as Uzumaki. She could see some people that had already used seals to light their hair up, each casting a dim red light. 

“You’re just in time!” Kamiko appeared in front of them. “We just finished lighting all the lanterns!” Kushina beamed when she spotted the bells also glowing with ethereal light. 

“Who’s doing the fireworks this year?” Kushina asked, bouncing slightly. It wasn’t her or her mom, she’d know if it was that, so she had to know who! 

“Do I want to know what fireworks are?” Tadaaki asked hesitantly. 

“Probably not,” Mitoko said, over Kushina and Kamiko’s assurances that he did. “But you’ll learn anyway. They’re controlled explosions in the sky that we make from seals. Families of the Hogo Uzu branch take turns doing the fireworks for the festival. I believe Takumei and Yuudai are doing the fireworks for our ship. They were quite enthusiastic when they volunteered.” 

“Oh, this’ll be good then!” Kushina cheered. Takumei and Yuudai were super good at explosions and fireworks! They’d totally do super well! 

“They are good at blowing holes in other ships,” Mitoko agreed, amused. 

Kushina snickered quietly at Minato’s mildly worried expression, along with Tadaaki’s expression that read like he was trying to decide whether he should run now. 

“A real help in battle,” Mitoko continued, waving to two men who were hunched over a table drawing. “I heard they’re thinking of adopting soon, maybe even a mist orphan from one of the islands we’re stealing.” 

“Oh, that’d be super cool!” Kushina agreed happily. “They’d totally be great parents!” 

Her mom ruffled her hair. “Of course.” She ruffled Minato and Tadaaki’s hair as well. “You guys want glow sticks or glow seals? I drew up extra.” 

“I drew up my own!” Kushina assured her mother, brandishing the glow seals she’d made earlier. “They make your hair glow! So, back of neck or forehead!” She slapped one onto her own forehead, knowing her hair had lit up with a fairly strong glow.

“Then what’s a glow stick?” Tadaaki asked, looking almost like he didn’t actually want to know the answer. 

Kushina blinked at him. “Exactly what it sounds like, silly. A glowing stick. Duh.” She pulled one from a storage seal and brandished it at Tadaaki. It glowed red of course, but she was good at other colors too! 

“Well, I’m pretty sure you guys haven’t managed to meet most of the crew, so try and socialize with them at least a little bit,” Mitoko clapped her hands together. “But more importantly, have fun!” 

“We will!” Kushina chirped, scanning the deck for any people she knew. Ooh, she knew Kou, who she could see dancing along to the song Hoshiko was playing. But Kou was kind of busy. Hiro and Kazuko probably were too, since Kushina didn’t see them anywhere. Oo, looked like Minori wasn’t doing much. And Yuichi was off somewhere else, so she was totally up for talking! 

Kushina made her decision and dragged Minato and Tadaaki towards Minori. 

“Minori!” Kushina hollard as soon as she was even remotely in hearing range. 

She turned around, the black and white and black barred feathers in her hair standing out starkly against her red hair. “Ah, hello. You’re Mitoko’s guppy, right? What was your name?” 

“Kushina!” Kushina replied immediately. She’d talked to Minori all of maybe three times, and usually just in passing, so she wasn’t surprised she didn’t know her name. “And this is Minato and Tadaaki!” 

She inclined her head to the two boys. “A pleasure to meet you. I’m Minori Akai Arashi.” 

“U-um,” Tadaaki spoke up nervously. “What a-are the feathers in your hair from?” 

“Hm?” Minori reached up and touched one of the white and black barred feathers like she’d forgotten they were there. Honestly Kushina wouldn't be surprised, one of the times she’d met Minori was a visit in the hospital, and she’d still had some feathers in. Kushina was pretty sure she only swapped out the feathers every month or two and otherwise left them alone. “Oh, yes, they’re from two of my summons, Bokuto and Akaashi this time. Bokuto has the white and black barred feathers, and Akaashi the black ones.” 

“You summon owls?” Minato asked. He looked confused. Kushina beamed. She knew this story! Albeit kind of chopped up because the time she’d heard it Minori had been very high on pain meds. But what can you do when the person you’re talking to has been out of surgery to repair splintered ribs for about four hours.

“Yep! Picked up the contract from a skeleton near Kumo!” 

“A skeleton?” Tadaaki squeaked. 

“Oh yeah!” Minori agreed. “I mean, it’s better than a mummified frozen corpse, so I’ll take what I can get. So I was on a mission up in these mountains, right.” 

“Right,” Minato agreed. 

“And the whole point of the mission was to check for these frozen mummified corpses because people die going up those mountains a lot, so every once in a while there’s this mission to go check so they can do all the right stuff for the people.” 

“Gruesome,” Tadaaki said, shivering slightly. 

“It’s awesome,” Kushina agreed, beaming. She couldn’t wait to be old enough to go on one of the missions. 

“But so apparently, after finding most of the corpses up there, I found this snowy owl that lead me to a cave with a skeleton inside. I think it was a Kumo nin or something that had tried to climb it, then got stuck in the cave, and died, then rotted away instead of being frozen like most corpses. It’d been a really warm summer that time so there was less snow and ice then usual, which I think is why no one else had found that cave.” 

“So it was usually blocked,” Minato guessed. 

Minori nodded. “Yep! So I find this, and the owl, who I have since found out is one of the ambassador animals for the summoning contract, basically they stay in the human world whenever there aren’t any summoners and look for a new summoner, so he helps me find this summoning scroll.” 

“Then you signed it!” Kushina burst in, unable to contain herself any longer. 

“Then I signed it!” Minori agreed cheerfully, unbothered. “So, finally meeting the crew, eh?”

Kushina nodded happily. “Finally got these two in one place for a while so Imma introduce them to everyone!” 

“Except Hiro and Kazuko.” Minori said. “They’re busy. Do not try to find them. And do not ask what they were doing in the morning.” 

Kushina nodded wisely. She knew what they were doing, even if she doubted Minato and Tadaaki did. “Of course. Is anyone else similarly busy?” 

Minori spun in a slow circle. “I can’t see Riko, Mekane, and Yoshio, so they’re probably busy if I know them, Isao isn’t up here, but they’ll be up here soon with food, so that’s not an issue.” 

“They don’t like that kind of busy anyway,” Kushina agreed, nodding solemnly. Tadaaki and Minato looked extremely confused, so Kushina just laughed and clapped them on the back. “Don’t worry about it! You’ll understand when you’re older!” 

“Kushina, you’re younger then both of us,” Minato pointed out quietly. “My birthday’s in January and Tadaaki’s is in May.” 

“And?” Kushina challenged him. “Just because I’m younger by a couple months doesn’t mean I don’t know way more about stuff then you do! Especially about Uzushio stuff! I got the talk ages ago!” 

Minato paled a couple shades. “That talk? The Talk with a capital T?” 

“Yeah! I got it when I became a genin, obviously. Doesn’t Konoha do it when you reach Chuunin or something?” 

“No they do it at Genin too as far as I know,” Minori offered. “I knew a Konoha genin that knew all about that.” 

“Oh cool,” Kushina decided. “And Iwa?” She turned to Tadaaki expectantly. Weirdly, he was also very pale, bordering on green. “Are you alright? Did you get seasick or something?” 

“Nope,” he said weakly. “Just realized what you were talking about.” 

Kushina cackled, clapping him on the back. “Don’t worry! We have silencing seals and locks for a reason! You won’t run into anything here!” 

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Minato slowly turning very very red. Almost as red as his hair was right now! Maybe it was time for a topic change. 

“Can I make your hair glow?” She asked Minato. He jumped slightly and she laughed at him. 

“No thank you,” he said, edging towards Tadaaki. It’s cute how he thought she wouldn’t notice. 

“Fine, fine, bye Minori! We gotta meet more people!” Kushina waved, and started dragging the two boys away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like it being from Kushina’s perspective? I thought it’d be a nice change of pace for a while. Plus we’d get more showing then explaining with her. And ridiculous stories as she gets mentally sidetracked after two seconds. Any preference as to who’s pov next chapter is in? It’ll be a continuation of the festival and more meeting some people. Unless everyone hates the collection of oc’s you’ve met so far, in which case too bad, you get them anyway. They’re all my babies and I love them very much. Don’t like, I dunno why you picked up a fic set primarily in Uzushio. Or on an Uzushio ship anyway. I would apologize for forgetting to update, but I’m too tired right now.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. If you’re on Ao3 and noticed the new chapter count, yeah. I got all it planned out technically. Something can always come up so the chapter count might fluctuate a bit, but at the moment, the estimated final chapter count is 38. That’s four islands they’re visiting. If I really do get tired of this fic, I may shuffle it around, have less islands or something, but that hopefully won’t happen for a while if at all.   
> Also, let's play a game. Find the Princess Bride reference in the chapter.

Kushina scanned the ship, ignoring Kou, who was still busy, along with Hoshiko, Mitose, and Koichi, who were busy playing their instruments. Hmm, looked like Isao wasn’t busy at the moment, they could totally go meet them! 

She grabbed the boys’ wrists and dragged them over to where she could see Isao drinking something and leaning against the railing of the ship. “ISAO!” 

They glanced up in confusion, then waved as Kushina dragged the boys over. 

“Minato, Tadaaki, this is Isao! They’re nonbinary!” 

“They/them pronouns is good,” Isao agreed. “A pleasure to meet you properly, I’ve seen you around the ship plenty, but never had the chance to say hello.” 

Kushina glanced back at Minato and Tadaaki. They both looked extremely confused, and Kushina wondered why. Maybe this was like the bi thing, they hadn’t understood that either. “Non-binary is when you’re neither female nor male,” she explained helpfully. “Hence, they/them pronouns!” 

They still didn’t seem to get it, so Kushina ignored them. “It was nice seeing you again Isao!” 

“Good to see you too Kushina,” they replied politely. 

Kushina scanned for another victim. Riko and Mekane were kissing while Yoshio laughed at something, so she dragged Minato and Tadaaki in that direction. 

“Hey, Yoshio!” 

“Hey, Kushina!” Yoshio replied cheerfully. “How’ve you been?” 

“I’ve been good!” Kushina chirped. “You?” 

“Ready to be married,” Yoshio admitted, holding up her hand with the ring. 

Kushina made grabby hands at it to inspect the ring. Yoshio let her grab her hand, and Kushina examined the pretty onyx and sapphire ring. “It’s pretty!” 

“Thank you,” Riko said, apparently done kissing Mekane. “I picked it out.” 

“With my help since you were three quarters asleep at that point,” Mekane chimed in. “Be grateful we managed to cuddle you into naptime for this event.” 

“I’m not talking to you because of that,” Riko shot back. 

“You say as you were making out with her not two seconds ago,” Yoshio said mildly. 

Mekane cackled. 

“A-are all three of you dating?” Minato asked hesitantly from behind her. 

“Hm? Oh, yes, we are. Well, now we’re all engaged, so not quite dating anymore. Almost married. I’m Yoshio, and these are my fiances Riko and Mekane.” 

“Minato,” he greeted quietly, sounding rather like he was trying to figure something out. 

“It was nice meeting you!” Kushina chirped. She grinned as she realized Takumei and Yuudai were ready to set the fireworks off. “We’re gonna go stand next to Takumei and Yuudai for the fireworks!”

“Have fun,” Mekane trilled. 

“We will!” Kushina replied cheerfully. 

She dragged her friends over to the husbands, waiting patiently for them to finish one more tag each so she didn’t mess either up. She knew what kind of damage a misdone firework seal could do. 

“Ah, Kushina,” Takumei said, finally looking up. “Just in time to help us set off some fireworks!” 

“Yes!” She cheered. “Minato, Tadaaki, this is Takumei and Yuudai! They’re married!” 

Yuudai waved, then started placing the seals on the handrail where they’d be set off from. 

“You boys probably need a run down on how to activate a firework,” Takumei guessed. 

“I’ll pass,” Tadaaki squeaked, hiding behind Kushina. “I don’t need to know that.” 

“Aww, but it’s fun!” Kushina chirped, dodging behind him and pushing him to the hand rail. “It’s not that hard! You just gotta push chakra into the seal, then twist counter clockwise 90 degrees with your hand to activate it, jump back, and bam! It goes off!” 

“Like this,” Yuudai said quietly, placing his hand ontop of a firework seal, pushing chakra into it, turning his hand left 90 degrees, then leaping back. 

The seal went off, and bright explosions formed in the sky, sparkling bright colors and neon lights. 

“See!” Kushina said enthusiastically, slamming her own hand down on a seal and activating it before jumping back and dragging Tadaaki with her. 

That firework flew into the sky and exploded into a very good drawing of a orca, all things considered. The fact that it was neon green was ignored. 

“Awesome!” Kushina went in for highfives from the men and they obliged her. “That was super cool! What other shapes do you have?” 

“This one’s a octopus,” Takumei offered, pointing at a seal. 

“Tadaaki! You activate that one!” Kushina decided, shoving him at it. “It’s super easy!” 

A firework went off near them and Kushina spun around to find Minato five feet away from the hand rail and looking rather shell shocked. She glanced at the sky just in time to see the giant orange dog in the sky before it faded. 

“See! It’s easy!” She repeated, pushing Tadaaki one more time for good measure. 

Tadaaki carefully put his hand down on the seal, pulsed his chakra and turned his hand, and didn’t move fast enough for Kushina’s tastes so she grabbed his collar to haul him backwards with her. The seal was indeed a bright pink octopus. 

They did the seals for another half hour, then ended the show. 

“Those were pretty cool!” Kou complimented Yuudai and Takumei as she came over, the ribbons in her hair glowing and floating around her head weightlessly. “Hey Kushina.” 

“Kou!” Kushina greeted enthusiastically. “This is Minato and Tadaaki! They’re my friends!” 

“Good to know,” she replied amusedly. “Say, do either of you dance?” 

Tadaaki and Minato were probably shaking their heads, Kushina couldn’t actually see since they were hiding behind her again. 

“Well then, Kushina, may I have this dance?” Kou asked mischievously, bowing and offering Kushina her hand. 

“Of course!” Kushina replied immediately, abandoning her friends to everyone else in a second. They needed the gentle shove anyway. They’d be fine. 

She danced with Kou for a while before weaving her way through the other dancing Uzumaki to find her friends. She’d totally have to get them to dance with her! It’d be awesome! 

“Come on!” She shouted over to them, grabbing their wrists. “Come dance with me!” 

She dragged them into the crowd, not bothering to release them as she danced to the music. 

“Mind if I cut in?” Fuka asked, a teen not too much older than Kushina and her friends, only by a couple years. 

“Sure! Which one!” Kushina chirped, cheerfully throwing her friends to the metaphorical wolves. 

“Whichever one she doesn’t take I will,” Fukei, Fuka’s twin brother, nearly identical, although with very different personalities. The boys couldn’t be in better hands, so she cheerfully handed them off. 

“Have fun!” She chirped, wandering off to find another dancing partner. 

Koichi was playing, which meant Mitose would probably need a dancing partner, and sure enough, she was standing nearby and probably waiting for her partner to be done with their turn playing. 

“Mitose!” Kushina chirped as she approached. “Dance with me!” 

“Don’t you have two friends for that?” She asked, taking Kushina’s hand and following her to the dance floor anyway. 

“I handed them off to the twins!” Kushina replied cheerfully. “They need the interaction anyway! They can’t hide behind me forever!” 

“Can’t argue with that logic,” Mitose agreed, laughing. “Alright then, we can leave your friends to the twins. The twins’ll teach them to dance better than you could anyway.” 

Kushina gasped. “Are you implying I can’t dance!? Inconceivable!” 

“I’m the one dancing with you, I think I’d know,” she replied, smirking. “You’re fine at dancing guppy, but not great at teaching things you figure everyone should know. We’re still trying to decide who’ll be the chaperone for you teaching the boys how to swim.” 

Kushina gasped again, a hand on her chest. “Are you implying I’d let them drown! Inconceivable!” 

“You keep using that word, I do not think that word means what you think it means,” Mitose replied cheekily. “But no, we’re just keeping an eye on you. Just in case. We don’t want to end up with two dead children on our watch.” 

“I wouldn’t let them drown,” Kushina pouted, making eye contact with Koichi across the floor. They were packing up their trumpet. “I think I’ll find another dance partner because of this slight on my dignity!” 

“What dignity?” Mitose replied as a parting playful jab, turning and striding to her partner. 

“I am offended!” Kushina yelled after Mitose. “Offended I tell you!” 

“Offended by what dear?” 

“Mom!” Kushina chirped, beaming her most angelic smile. “Mitose just said I didn’t have dignity.” 

“Hm, I can see it,” Mitoko replied, tilting her head as if in deep thought. 

Kushina squawked in outrage. “Mother! And here I was going to ask you to dance too! I don’t think I will anymore!” 

“No, still dance with me,” Mitoko laughed, grabbing Kushina’s hand before she could retract it. “I’m sorry, you have plenty of dignity. You got it from your other mother. Oceans know I don’t have any.” 

“You have plenty, Mom,” Kushina replied firmly. “Even if Momma has more.” 

Mitoko laughed quietly. “What did I ever do to deserve two wonderful women who love me this much?” 

“Exist,” Kushina told her solemnly. 

“Thanks, dear,” Mitoko replied, ruffling her hair. “That means a lot.” 

“Of course!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wholesome interactions before next chapter. It’s not particularly angsty or anything it just isn’t nearly as wholesome lol. There’s a lot more blood… Probably. I’m not entirely sure what the children have planned. 

**Author's Note:**

> Do I have an entirely made up festival just for Uzushio? Yes. Yes I do. Fight me on it. Or don’t.


End file.
